Tartine closes huge Los Angeles restaurant complex after less than a year

Bread at Tartine Manufactory. The Los Angeles location will continue to operate its wholesale bakery.

Photo: John Storey / Special to The Chronicle 2017

Beloved San Francisco bakery Tartine expanded into Los Angeles in January with a sprawling, 40,000-square-foot Manufactory outfitted with two restaurants, a cafe, a bakery and a marketplace. On Monday, all of the retail components open to the public closed.

“It’s very strange closing a place that is loved and that I’m proud of,” said owner Chad Robertson. “I’m sad, but when you decide to grow your business, some of the decisions you have to make aren’t ones you confront when you’re small and have only one shop.”

The closures began six weeks ago with Tartine Bianco, the complex’s all-day restaurant, a partnership with Phoenix chef Chris Bianco that received a rave review in the Los Angeles Times. The other sections closed on Monday.

Bread being made at Tartine Manufactory in San Francisco, Calif. on January 5th, 2017.

Photo: John Storey / Special to The Chronicle 2017

This doesn’t mean the end of Tartine in Los Angeles, though. Tartine will continue to operate 13,000 square feet at the location for its wholesale operation, continuing to supply Whole Foods. It opened a cafe in West Hollywood and has plans to open cafes in Silver Lake and Santa Monica. Robertson now splits his time between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The key issue with the Manufactory project, Robertson said, was the downtown location, an area full of manufacturing but not many residents. In a city where everyone drives, there wasn’t foot traffic on weekdays, and destination visits on the weekend couldn’t sustain the operation.

The exterior of Tartine Manufactory in San Francisco, Calif. is seen on January 5th, 2017.

Photo: John Storey / Special to The Chronicle 2017

“We were trying to really show L.A. that we were committing to L.A.,” Robertson said of the project’s ambitious magnitude. “If I had lived here before, I probably would not have done it that way.”

Janelle Bitker joined The San Francisco Chronicle in 2019. As the food enterprise reporter, she covers restaurant news as well as Bay Area culture at large through a food lens. Previously, she served as a reporter for Eater SF, managing editor at the East Bay Express, and arts & culture editor at the Sacramento News & Review. Her writing has been recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and Association of Alternative Newsmedia.